A Democracy In Name Only
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Of course, we Americans are reminded of this by our president’s historic trip this week to Africa and his excoriating various national leaders for their suppression of journalists who write articles that are critical of the government. “If you continue to do that, you will have a democracy in name only,” he scolded.
How true that is.
How sad, however, that it comes from a U.S. president who has prosecuted far more domestic whistleblowers than any other in history, and who presides over Guantanamo Bay, where people who have not been charged with crimes are held prisoner indefinitely without access to legal representation.
He also hails from a land in which the following words are true, as I wrote previously. Indeed, all this has created, for us at home here as well, a democracy in name only.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had with Dave Belote a few years ago, a gentleman who had enjoyed a long and distinguished military career. He was the commander of Nellis Air Force Base (sitting on 14,000 acres and employing over 12,000 people) before trading in his uniform for a suit, and working at senior levels in the Department of Defense. He spoke at a conference on renewable energy finance, and talked specifically about the U.S. military as a customer for renewable energy, during which he referred to the fact that certain Congress-people are dead-set against clean energy.
After his presentation, I asked him what he thought laid behind this. He told me, “There are few people in government who fairly and honestly look at the world in terms of what’s best for the people. Almost all look through the lens of the interests of the people who got them elected.”
Sadly, his observation here is not mere opinion. Here are a few facts that came from a recent presentation that Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig gave to a large and earnest audience.
• According to surveys of thousands of Americans, we almost unanimously agree on two things: a) money has too much influence on politics, and b) there is nothing that can be done to change this.
• 5.4 million Americans (a little under 2%) made cash donations to a politician in the last election, but the top 100 gave more than the bottom 4.75 million.
• A study from Princeton University shows an almost 100% correlation between Congressional votes and the interests of these Top 100.
• The same study shows that the decisions that Congress makes on the variety of issues are completely independent of the will of the people. Whether 20%, 40%, 60%, or 80% of the electorate supports a certain subject, this has no statistical bearing whatsoever on how the Senate and the House will vote on the matter.
My hat’s off to Lessig. A brilliant and extremely accomplished human being, he could be doing anything he wants to with the rest of his life, but he’s chosen to restore meaning to our democracy, which means extracting corruption from U.S. politics, a task not unlike pulling half an antelope out of a lion’s mouth.
Yet, unless he (or someone else) is successful in addressing this task, we’re very foolish to think that a sane energy policy (or any of the other goodies we all want) is in the offing.
